Kolkata: Railways minister Piyush Goyal has directed the Metro Railway authority in Kolkata to expedite the works on projects where the land is free of encroachment instead of getting stuck on projects where the availability of land is an issue.

Goyal was in Kolkata today to attend an interactive session organised by a chamber of commerce. On the sidelines of this, he reviewed the functioning of Metro Railway in a meeting with general manager Ajay Vijayvargiya and senior officials.

During the meeting, the minister was apprised about encroachment along the under-construction Joka-BBD Bag and Noapara-Barasat Metro projects. In response, the minister asked the officers to coordinate with the state government on this but prioritise the work on other Metro projects where the land is free of encroachment.

Goyal enquired about the recent disruptions in Metro Railway services and was told that this was mostly because of rakes that have overshot their shelf-life. Metro GM informed that an action plan has been formulated to phase out all the old rakes by the end of March next year and this will address the disruptions.

The railways minister today released a booklet in Bengali on the progress of the railway projects in Bengal over the last four years.

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